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Estimating the Incidence of Traumatic Experiences and their Impacts on Political Participation, Gender Attitudes and Societal Values

Project summary

War-time experiences of displacement, injury and death can have dramatic and enduring impacts on victims’ social, economic and political choices. However, some forms of victimisation remain understudied. This is the case for war-time sexual violence (WTSV). Both men and women are likely to underreport their experiences when asked directly, thus hiding the true extent of WTSV and making it difficult to study its impacts. We propose to study WTSV experiences using innovative survey methods designed for sensitive topics, allowing us to get more accurate information about WTSV incidence, and then analyse the impact of WTSV, and other war-time experiences, on political participation, attitudes around gender roles and societal values. Kosovo is an interesting case-study as a government program running from 2018-2023 recognising and compensating victims of WTSV has had little take-up, evidencing a persistent stigma over 20 years after the war. Our research will therefore help inform future legislation.

Principal investigator

, Associate Professor, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº SSEES

This project is funded by the British Academy.

Image credit: Heroinat Memorial in Pristin, Elodie Douarin